


Perjury

by Lanerose



Category: Death Note
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-20
Updated: 2005-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-10 17:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6998566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the wake of the events of chapter 59, Yagami Souichiro has a decision to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perjury

**Author's Note:**

> Written because the Nile is not just a river in Egypt. ^.^;;;

Chief Yagumi watched the small body on the bed. It seemed so strange to see Ryuuzaki, who had always been in motion, lying still at last. Off to one side, a monitor beeped in a quiet, steady rhythm. The doctors and nurses who had been swarming around the bed had left, called away by other, more urgent patients.

After all, Ryuuzaki had stabilized.

As he stood there, eyes focused on the man whose opinions and brilliance he had come to trust above all others, he wondered what the right thing to do was. Someone had managed to go after Ryuuzaki. That meant that one of the others had to be involved with Kira, had to *Be* Kira.

Maybe he’d been wrong about Light.

Maybe Light was Kira.

Light hadn’t written L’s name in the Death Note. He’d been standing right next to his son when Watari and L had been attacked. It had been physically impossible for him to be the one who had triggered L’s collapse. He wished that fact was enough to convince him that his son wasn’t involved.

It wasn’t.

After all, he had always known his son was brilliant.

He tried telling himself that he had to be mistaken, that it was one of the others, that it was the Reaper acting on his own, that it was any of a hundred other possibilities – none of it was convincing. Light’s intelligence, his ability to adapt to any situation, and his knowledge of the criminal mind were things his father was only too aware.

He’d been the one to shape them in the first place.

Chief Yagami wondered, as the soft beeping continued, where he had gone wrong. Perhaps it had been because of the amount of time he spent at work, and way from his family. He’d always been busy, probably too busy. Maybe he shouldn’t have praised Light so often or so loudly – but he’d been so proud of his son. He probably shouldn’t have been as willing as he was to let Light help him on different cases – but he’d wanted, he’d so very much wanted, to have his son follow in his footsteps.

That could never happen now.

He’d raised a murderer.

A murderer who he would bring to justice, no matter the cost.

Chief Yagami turned from the bed. The doctors had said it would be months before the boy recovered, presuming that he ever did. Whatever miracle had spared him death at Kira’s hands would not hold him long, particularly if Kira found out that his greatest rival yet drew breath in this world.

There was only one thing to be done, really.

Chief Yagami drew all of his disappointment in himself and his child to the surface of his mind, and called on the regrets he truly held for Ryuuzaki’s current state. From there, it wasn’t a stretch at all to a believable expression of grief.

He walked into the lobby, watching as the groups eyes turned to focus on him. He met Light’s eyes for a brief moment, and felt his heart break at the anticipation that he could read in them. He drew in a shaky breath, and spoke.

“Ryuuzaki has died.”


End file.
